Stop fooling voters

The Himalayan Times

12 May 2022

Stop fooling voters

It seems everything is possible in Nepali politics looking at the nominations of common candidates of the five-party coalition parties for the upcoming local elections. It is not known elsewhere about political parties forming an alliance to take part in an election and forcibly asking the voters to vote for their common candidate, who will be using the election symbol and political manifestos of one of the coalition partners. But the existing five-party coalition partners made it possible. There is a common practice of forming a coalition government if no political party is able to form its government due to insufficient number of elected representatives as per the constitution. नेपाल कता तिर ? 

The major political parties, which never get tired of telling the people about their prime responsibility to safeguard the constitution and protect democracy from regressive forces, seem to be again deceiving their voters.All the major political parties have made public their unattainable political manifestos for the upcoming local level elections “Tall promises” (THT, May 10, Page 4). Most of the promises made in their manifestos cannot be fulfilled considering the existing trend. They are well aware of the financial, technical and human resource constraints at the local levels, and they know that their promises cannot be realised. However, they continue to fool their voters. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to deceive the voters this time.

The purpose of holding the local level election is primarily to let the local population choose and elect the right representatives who will be able to carry out their responsibilities of addressing the local problems, ranging from managing small-scale development projects, such as drinking water and irrigation schemes, managing electricity lines, providing basic health care services and running educational institutions, among others by using the available resources in the best possible ways. Unfortunately, the five-party alliance has not given their voters to choose their preferred representatives. NEPALI POLITICS

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj